Conservatory or extension? Costs?

Distiller72 · 11 January 2018 at 4:54AM

I am almost debt free so my mind has turned to tje next plan. I really need anotjer reception room in my home, to be used as a dining room. I have a due south facing rear garden and a 4m x 3m space I could possibly put either a lean to conservetory or a small extension to make a dining room. I have no idea how much either of tjese options would cost. Cany anyone give me a rough idea? I do not feel its fair getting a tradesman out to give a quote if it is way way above my realistic budget.
I am just outside Aberdeen if area makes a difference.
Thank you in advance x:beer:

tired_dad · 11 January 2018 at 10:27AM

South facing cons down south would be too hot in summer

.

Definite extension. No 2 ways about it. £1000-£2000 per m2?

I’ve read posts saying £1000/m2 is possible but certainly not where I am. Nearer double that.

At the end of the day you cannot get an idea of cost without getting quotes because there are too many variables. It’s all pie in the sky till a proper builder quotes you

Doozergirl · 11 January 2018 at 11:43AM

tired_dad wrote: »

South facing cons down south would be too hot in summer .

Definite extension. No 2 ways about it. £1000-£2000 per m2?

I’ve read posts saying £1000/m2 is possible but certainly not where I am. Nearer double that.

At the end of the day you cannot get an idea of cost without getting quotes because there are too many variables. It’s all pie in the sky till a proper builder quotes you

It will be on the higher side because it’s so small. There’s no economy of scale.

3+3+4=10 linear metres of wall to 12sqm of space. A huge proportion of cost is spent in the ground on a small build. If it projects 4m then it’s 11 linear metres to achieve 12 sqm.

If you want to build something cheaply, it needs to be big and square. Say 10x10m square - that’s 40 linear metres and provides 100sqm of space. Infinitely cheaper per sqm.

Davesnave · 11 January 2018 at 11:47AM

tired_dad wrote: »

South facing cons down south would be too hot in summer .

Definite extension. No 2 ways about it. £1000-£2000 per m2?

I have a south-facing conservatory 'down south.' and because it's well-designed, it's usable for the vast majority of days, but I agree there are probably nicer places to be on 24c days, like my north-facing live-in kitchen. That's where I'd be whether it was a garden room or a conservatory; nice, steady 22c max in there.

But for the OP in Aberdeen, I'd think a bigger problem might be condensation in winter. Yesterday, once the sun was up, we opened up the double doors to the conservatory and it heated our living area for the rest of the day. However, if it had been really dreich, with no sun, doing that would have meant foggy windows and a damp feeling in there.

So, a conservatory isn't as flexible as a solid-roofed extension.

Why have one then? Well, there's cost, but I wouldn't say a good conservatory is that much cheaper; only bad ones, because the ground work, walls and insulation ought to be similar. They probably won't be similar if a typical conservatory company do them, because they'll do the bare minimum to come in at a cut price. I'd get a 'real' builder to do those. We did our own.

The strongest reason to have a conservatory is probably to do with losing light. Our friends went for an EPDM roofed garden room, which has a fantastic northerly view, but it made their living area horribly dark. Win and lose. Like us, they live in a bungalow and the only way here to avoid the dark difficulties was to start seriously messing with the roof.....not an option on our budget, and we were maxed-out on conventional extensions here anyway.

So, we went with a conservatory, and no surprises or problems so far (other than with the company who erected it - another story!) We're happy with it. We never expected a 24/7 x 365 structure. If that's what you mean by 'dining room' then it won't be that. However, we had Christmas dinner in ours and we have most daylight meals there because, as smallholders, we're home most of the time.

There can be a number of personal reasons for taking a conservatory option, and it needn't be awful; although people with bad ones will say it is, but if there's no down-side to a solid roofed, building regs compliant garden room, try to go with that.

Distiller72 · 11 January 2018 at 12:46PM

Thank you for your replies. As it stands we have a big kitchen to the rear with a table in the middle.like an oversized island. Having everyone home for holidays was a squeeze. By dining room I mean a room we can put our table in and eat at each night so from a 365 24/7 use poont of view an extension seems more appropriate than a conservatory. At 2k per sqm it puts it within the remortgage and withdraw equity to do it rather than the save for a year and its done type range which is a step further than I was when i posted this morning

Furts · 11 January 2018 at 1:41PM

4mx3m is a tiddly extension so you really want to try and make this bigger. Going two storey would also create better build value.

Whilst there is a budget cost of £2k per square metre, if ground conditions are poor, access difficult, local labour busy or a multitude of reasons then you could easily exceed this.

Countless people have extensions but it is an expensive way to add floor area. So also consider if you will raise the value of your home, and if so to what extent.

Sometimes the commercial decision is do not do it, or to move elsewhere to a bigger home.

OnTheLadder · 12 January 2018 at 3:26PM

We were recently trying to decide between conservatory and extension. We had a couple of quotes for a conservatory/lean to style addition to our house about the same size as you 4m*3m - in the region of 12K. We decided, after some advice on here too and lots of research, that the drawbacks of a conservatory meant this price was not worth it. We also decided an extension would be too expensive as likely to be more than the conservatory - so just going to re-do our kitchen to more suit our needs :-)

glasgowdan · 13 January 2018 at 12:19AM

I fitted a lightweight wooden frame into our conservatory as a ceiling, lined with 50mm pir boards and faced with pvc panels and it is now a genuinely usable 365-day room. Amazing!

Distiller72 · 18 January 2018 at 4:11AM

Kitchen re-do is looking most likely

Conservatory or extension? Costs?

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